Overview

First and foremost I'd like to ask you all to keep our dear friends Cori and Blades White and their families in your prayers this week. They lost their baby daughter Kyndal Ann on Wednesday night. She was born by cesarean section on Thursday morning but the cord had wrapped around her neck. Cori and Blades are doing amazing and our hearts are with them. They have the gospel and the peace that only the Savior can give. I know in our own trial the prayers of everyone helped immensely and so this is why I ask this favor of you.

It was hard to hear of a loss so close and brought back some powerful memories as I remembered the events we went through and knew that Cori and Blades will have to walk that same path. Though I have grown so much and the loss of Kai has brought me closer to my Savior than I ever imagined, I never would have chosen this trial, even now when I've gained so much from it, but I can take something good from it. This is one of the amazing things I have learned.

We can not always choose what life may throw at us but we can always choose how we will react to the trials we face and the lessons we learn. My deeper relationship with my Savior is one of the things I choose to take for good. The infinite love of my Heavenly Father another. The beauty of our son, the love and time we had with him and our eternal relationship is yet another. On to lighter things.

On September 25th Kirstin participated in the pre game show for the High School football game with the High School band. Every year they have a 8th Grade Night when all the 8th grade band students come play with the High School band and do a show.

Emil and Emil Michael were on a canoe camping trip where they had to canoe to their camp site and so it was just Noah and I. The night was chilly, somewhere in the upper 50's and a light drizzle was falling. I have to be honest, I was really hoping they would cancel it but no such luck. We sat with some other band families and it was fun to be at a High School football game for the first time since I played in the band my Senior year.

They did a great job and Kirstin really enjoyed herself. The HS band is relatively small. Probably only 70 kids but they give it all their heart. Kirstin's not sure if she's going to play in High School yet. Her love of sports is serious competition and unfortunately many of the sport seasons coincide with the marching band season. I guess we'll just have to wait and see.

The soccer season is about half over and they've won a few games. Last Monday was a really close game. They were playing a team they haven't beaten in 15 years. They went into double over time and ended tied 0-0. It was a victory in that they tied them. Kirstin is a defender and worked really hard. All the kids did. I think I like soccer the best of all her sports. They hardly ever stop to do time outs. It's constant action.

Emil M. is busy with seminary, Scouts, Duty to God, the Great American novel and piano. He's working on some new numbers for his Christmas recital so hopefully we will have a new CD this year of some of his songs. Some are, Where are you Christmas? and the Hunchback of Notre Dame. The latter takes about 15 minutes to play in it's entirety.

The Great American Novel is just my nickname for his book he's writing and hoping to publish to fund his mission. The real name is Colonies of Achiris. Writing is a passion with him and he probably logs in about 2-3 hours a day on the computer. That is if his mother doesn't side track him with mundane things like chores. I'm glad he has such a firm resolve and interest in writing. Can I just brag a bit and say I think he get's that from his mother.

This week I canned some scuppernog grape juice. It taste really good but it's cloudy like apple cider. I'm not quite sure why it's not clear. I'm thinking it was the method I cooked the grapes to get the most juice from them before putting it in the jars. Anyway. I had a good time doing it and get a load of this 2 quart canning jar! Have you ever see one this big? Sister Snowden gave me about 8 of them a year or so ago. She found them in her garage. She's in her 80's and said they use to use them all the time when she would can things. I thought it was amazing. I've never seen one so huge!

Other than canning I've been spending a good deal of time with friends asking questions about religion. It's been so rewarding sharing the gospel. I have absolutely loved it! I've got to run. There are dogs to wash, talks to write and pizza fixing to buy. Have a great week!